“The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs: A New History of a Lost World” by Stephen Brusatte

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Rating: 4/5 Stars

A fascinating look at the rise and fall of the dinosaurs, with personal interludes by the author about his own personal interest and research in the field with fellow fossil collaborators, who also turn out to be quite fascinating characters in their own right. Dinosaur nerds will be familiar with most of the dinosaur names, while others will get an appreciation for what it took for palaeontologists to dig out what happened to these magnificent prehistoric animals.

A chapter by chapter review follows:

• The Dawn of the Dinosaurs: this chapter starts at the end of the Permian and the beginning of the Triassic. Traces of the animals that would become the dinosaurs begin to show up in the fossil record with identifying features, especially limbs that are placed beneath the body, instead of sprawling out to the side.
• Dinosaurs Rise Up: the chapter covers the initial rise of dinosaurs in the Triassic. At this time, all the land masses were together (Pangaea) leading to some climate extremes. Dinosaurs were found in the temperate regions, but not many, and were overshadowed by their crocodilian cousins and other large amphibians. At this time, they were not dominating the landscape, like in the standard narrative about the rise of dinosaurs.
• Dinosaurs Become Dominant: this chapter covers the end of the Triassic, which was marked by large volcanic eruptions as Pangaea broke apart. Many animals would become extinct, but dinosaurs thrived, although the reason why dinosaurs did and not other kinds of animals didn’t well known. Among the dinosaurs, a group known as the sauropods would eventually become the biggest creatures to walk the earth.
• Dinosaurs and Drifting Continents: covering the Jurassic period, this chapter shows dinosaurs were now dominant, with the largest dinosaurs being the sauropods. Many sauropod species existed at the same time, but they specialized in their diets to coexist (some ate the low vegetation, others higher up). The Jurassic would become the Cretaceous, with the continents were still breaking up. The sauropods would be replaced by other plant eaters and the earlier predators replaced by other bigger ones like Allosaurus.
• The Tyrant Dinosaurs: this chapter focuses on one group of dinosaurs: the Tyrannosaurs. T. rex would be the first tyrannosaur to be found and the largest. The puzzle was how it became so big and how it came to dominate during the Cretaceous, while other big predator dinosaurs around. Recent fossils show the Tyrannosaur family started in the Jurassic, but were small then. Only later would it grow big and dominant after other big dinosaurs disappeared during an extinction event.
• The King of the Dinosaurs: the chapter focuses mainly on the famous T. rex. It covers those characteristics that have made it a well known prehistoric predator: from its teeth, its bone crushing skull strength, it’s running abilities, its probable intelligence and behaviour, to how fast it grew and how long it lived. Here is everything you ever wanted to know about the tyrant.
• Dinosaurs at the Top of Their Game: this chapter looks at dinosaurs in general during the Cretaceous, which were varied and diverse. Continents were now split apart, leading to diverse ecologies and different kinds of species on different continent: T. rex and Triceratops in North America, for example, others in South America, Asia and Africa. In Europe (then a bunch of islands), evolution would lead to weird small dinosaurs due to the ‘island effect’.
• Dinosaurs Take Flight: this chapter would look at the only branch of the dinosaurs that still exist: the birds. It covers the evidence that birds are dinosaurs from their anatomy. The discovery of feathered dinosaurs in China would further seal the relationship. But why did feathers evolve? For now, the idea is that feathers were initially used for display, and only later were they reused for flight.
• Dinosaurs Die Out: this chapter covers the end of the reign of dinosaurs due to the impact of a large object from space. The evidence from the work of the author and others would dispute the assertion that dinosaurs were already in decline before the impact. A brief section on the rise of the mammals would close out the story.

Book read from 2022/02/27 to 2022/03/08